“Man has affinity for his fellowman, regardless of race, creed or politics, and the greater the variety, the more zest. All friendliness needs is a sporting chance, it will take care of itself in any company.”
Paul Harris 1934
The Rotary International Theme for April is Child and Maternal Health.
This is an area of our service that we excel in. The many and varied Global Grant and District Grant programs, the club projects and the outside organisations that many clubs support testifies to this. Many of these projects were on display or presented by the Guest Speakers during the District Conference last weekend. District 9685’s track record in this field is amazing with almost every club in the district is supporting a project that has a direct benefit to child and maternal health. The Days for Girls Project that has taken off across the district is but one example.
As I write this newsletter item my head is still full of the weekend’s District Conference and I am so delighted that so many Rotarians and friends from across the district came to the event. The wonderful array of showcase stalls and the support given to them was fantastic.
The Gnome Competition drew many variations of the humble gnome handed out on my club visits. Sadly, there could only be one winner Congratulations to West Pennant Hills Cherrybrook on your winning BBQ Gnome. These results were purely on the money deposited into the little black jars in front of the gnomes. The total amount of funds raised from the Gnomes was $1652.00 which will be transferred to the Rotary Foundation.
The combined efforts of the YEP students with their “paint your Pinkie Purple” campaign and the bucket drop on the End Polio Now Walk was $847.20 and those funds will go to the End Polio Now Campaign.
There are so many people I want to THANK for making our district conference such a success that the newsletter item would just go on and on. To everyone who came, everyone who worked at the conference, everyone who supported it in anyway at all THANK YOU.
The Rotary year continues on and I am looking forward to the many special activities that clubs will be hosting between now and 30 June 2019.
There are 2 special meetings on the horizon.
The first is Saturday 27 April at Hornsby RSL at 9am to workshop the proposal regarding New Districting. This meeting will be chaired by PDG Ian Scott and we hope to be able to answer the questions and concerns that clubs have raised in relation to the request for you to vote on the continuing of the discussion towards a new district or not. The vote will not be taken that day. I have invited current Presidents and President elects to attend this meeting.
The next meeting will be the 2018/19 Presidents Meeting on Saturday 11 May 2019, again at Hornsby RSL but at the regular time of 8am.This meeting will see the vote taken on the New District Proposal discussion to continue or not. It will also be an Awards presentation morning with most of the district awards being presented to current club presidents.
Clubs will also be receiving the Insurance Declaration documents in the near future and we ask that you complete the form and return to the Insurance chair as soon as practicable.